Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-05-19
THE PRESIDENTS MAIL.
Letters From All Sorts OF Petitioners,
Their Wives and Children.

The Presidents mail contains an
average of from one hundred to one
hundred and fifty letters a day from
PEI sons whose claims for pensions are
pending before the department. These
people address the Chief Executive in
the belief, probably, that the Pension
Office is next door to the White House,
and that theirs is the only letter he
may have received in a week.
About one-half of these letters are
sent to Mrs. Cleveland. The writers
in such cases are usually the wives or
daughters of the petitioners. Some of
them bestow upon Mrs. Cleveland such
titles as Her Majesty Empress"
and other appellations of royalty.
There are few of the letters that do not
contain some touches of human nature.
They are evidently written in the sim
cere belief that Mrs. Cleveland will as
sist them if her sympathies can only
be aroused. With this object in view
a great mass of detail is set forth in
the communication, which, together
with the obscure chirography and bad
spelling, make its understanding
matter of no incOnsiderable time and
labor.
1t may be said in this connection that
neither the President nor Mrs. Cleve-
land is even aware of the existence of
these letters. They are opened by an
unromantic and unsentimental clerk at
the Executive mansion, from whose
hands they fall into the basket
l., 6
The women who address Mrs Cleve-
land furnish her with suggestions as to
the better method of presenting their
claim to the President. One of the
plans which a perusal of the letters
show that all women hold in common
is for her to wait until Mr.. Cleveland
has had his supper and then, when he
is enjoying a quiet smoke in the parlor
(sic) bring the matter to his attention.
Many of them tell her that this is the
hour of the day when man is most
amenable to argument. and that they
(the writers) prefer this as the safest
time for presenting their own requests.
The applicants for pensions, who
write to the President are, as has been
said, old soldiers, who, like the femi-
nine part of the family, are sadly def
cient in the principles of even an ele-
mentary education. They write, too,
in a more vigorous style than their
helpmeets, and their language is some
times of so robust nature that it fire.
quently provokes smile. For exam
pie. an Illinois man who addresses the
President in 4 letter received to-day
says:
1.-The pension officials tell me to get
corrobOrative evidence from some of
my comrades. l want to tell you it S a
hard matter to get evidence from men
who go into an action and never come
out again" and then he continues by
saying that his company went into the
Wilderness hundred strong, and at
the end of the seven days fight there
were but nine of the number who were
left to tell the tale.
Sometimes the letters are written by
who begin in this fashion
Dear Mr.. President: l am a little girl
only ten years of age. My papa does
not know l am writing this letter. If
he did he would not permit it, Then
follows a pathetic tale of want and
misery, touching enough in its simple
style of treatment, but rendered doubly
SO by the fact of the writer's youth and
innocence.
- Several months ago one of these
missives CHANGED to reach the
Presidents eye. Its simple pleading
touched a sympathetic chord in the
Presidents heart. The little miss
begged the retention of her father,
on the board of medical
examiners in the New England town in
which their home was located. She
said he was very old and dying of an
inc'Irable disease. The position paid
him a salary of about 81, POO a year,
and in view of the fact that he could no
longer practice his profession the fore
going sum was their only source of in
come. The letter concluded naively in
these words: Papa must not know
about this. 1t must be n secret be-
tween you and me. If You decide TO
keep him mark an X on the back of
the inclosed postal card and then will
know that you are going to grant my
wish
The President sent the letter and in
closure to Commissioner of Pensions
Black. with this Endorsement: eff there
are no charges against the examiner in
question you will oblige me by retain
ing him in his present position.
General Black Investigated the mat
ter, and found that the examiner was
not an old man, but, on the contrary, "A
lusty young fellow scarcely thirty
years of age. and that so far from hav-
ing 50 little girl only ten years of age"
he was not even married.
The telegraph after this couldn't car
~ his dismissal quick enough to him,
and since that time letters from little